Flying after rescue course

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Jake

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A friend of mine is considering taking a TDI rescue class in a few months. She was just invited to an event in Las Vegas on the evening of her ocean dives, which in theory would end about 5 hours before a flight from Southern California to Nevada if she went.

It's been a long time since I took rescue, but I vaguely remember being underwater to about 15 feet for a very short duration (like 2-3 minutes) as a victim and a rescuer. Everything else was surface skills if memory serves correct. I'm not familiar with TDI training, so I'm not sure how much time is spent underwater in their course.

I'm familiar with standard guidance on flying after diving, but have been unable to find guidance on flying after a rescue course.

Has anything been published on a situation like this? My gut says that if it really is 10-20 minutes or so at 15-20 fsw, there's no real risk. However, I'm in no way qualified to make such a determination so am curious if there is anything in the literature.
 
Not really a direct answer to your query but I wanted to point out that different locations present different issues, depths and times. I know locally our rescue students spend a while underwater and at depths down to 40’ at our particular training site.

And by a while I know I personally spent at least 30 minutes lying on the bottom at about 30’ waiting to be ‘rescued’ by searching students on one course a couple of years ago. Vis here is limited to 15’ at the best of times and they spent a lot of time on the search pattern before they located me.

None of us would have been safe to fly the same day.
 
If it's only 15 feet for 15 minutes she could probably get away with it. But what if it's not? What if she ends up deeper and/or longer? Then she's got this plane ticket and event to attend that's going to cause pressure to take the risk.

Personally I think it's a bad plan because of that. Any chance she could get the instructor to do her class a day early? That would solve the problem, right?

If the instructor won't change, consider a different instructor. There's a LOT of instructors in the world that teach rescue, I'm confident she could find a replacement either in CA or NV.
 
It’s not going to be TDI. It’s going to be SDI. You’re in and out of the water. At least I was.
 
Hi everyone, I'm the friend in question. Thank you for all your helpful replies. @Marie13, it is SDI -- I always confuse the 2 when referring to the agency.
My instructor moved our OW dive a day before, she has limited time in CA so finding a schedule that works last minute is pretty hard. I didn't want to risk anything so we opted to move it.

Thanks!
 
First thing you should learn in a rescue course from any agency is how to prevent accidents....
 
A friend of mine is considering taking a TDI rescue class in a few months. She was just invited to an event in Las Vegas on the evening of her ocean dives, which in theory would end about 5 hours before a flight from Southern California to Nevada if she went.

It's been a long time since I took rescue, but I vaguely remember being underwater to about 15 feet for a very short duration (like 2-3 minutes) as a victim and a rescuer. Everything else was surface skills if memory serves correct. I'm not familiar with TDI training, so I'm not sure how much time is spent underwater in their course.

I'm familiar with standard guidance on flying after diving, but have been unable to find guidance on flying after a rescue course.

Has anything been published on a situation like this? My gut says that if it really is 10-20 minutes or so at 15-20 fsw, there's no real risk. However, I'm in no way qualified to make such a determination so am curious if there is anything in the literature.


If it is for the SHORT PERIOD and at the DEPTHS you are stating, it shouldn't be an issue. You can also ask the instructor to use Nitrox instead, that will help with the timings. The safest way IF she is using a modern dive computer is to follow what it says. FYI new algorithms like in the Suunto D5 are far more progressive with reduced 'no flight' times, I've seen a big difference from my D9 and (vintage) Stinger.
I would go with what the dive computer says.
 
The answer is no; there are too many assumptions made in your statement.
Preventing accidents is not an accident. It is planned. That is the core lesson learned in Rescue Diving.
 
A friend of mine is considering taking a TDI rescue class in a few months. She was just invited to an event in Las Vegas on the evening of her ocean dives, which in theory would end about 5 hours before a flight from Southern California to Nevada if she went.

It's been a long time since I took rescue, but I vaguely remember being underwater to about 15 feet for a very short duration (like 2-3 minutes) as a victim and a rescuer. Everything else was surface skills if memory serves correct. I'm not familiar with TDI training, so I'm not sure how much time is spent underwater in their course.

I'm familiar with standard guidance on flying after diving, but have been unable to find guidance on flying after a rescue course.

Has anything been published on a situation like this? My gut says that if it really is 10-20 minutes or so at 15-20 fsw, there's no real risk. However, I'm in no way qualified to make such a determination so am curious if there is anything in the literature.

Hi everyone, I'm the friend in question. Thank you for all your helpful replies. @Marie13, it is SDI -- I always confuse the 2 when referring to the agency.
My instructor moved our OW dive a day before, she has limited time in CA so finding a schedule that works last minute is pretty hard. I didn't want to risk anything so we opted to move it.

Thanks!

Hi all, for future reference the US Navy Diving Manual, available for download here, contains guidelines for ascent to altitude after diving. Note that the RGDs in the table are from the US Navy decompression tables. Commercial airliners are pressurized to between 6000 and 8000 feet of altitude. Other standard disclaimers apply: use at your own risk, these tables were developed for physically fit, carefully screened military divers and still do not guarantee freedom from injury.

Best regards,
DDM

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A
Hi all, for future reference the US Navy Diving Manual, available for download here, contains guidelines for ascent to altitude after diving. Note that the RGDs in the table are from the US Navy decompression tables. Commercial airliners are pressurized to between 6000 and 8000 feet of altitude. Other standard disclaimers apply: use at your own risk, these tables were developed for physically fit, carefully screened military divers and still do not guarantee freedom from injury.

Best regards,
DDM

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Although I learned to dive with the US Navy tables back in 2002, I doubt that any diver in the last 10 years or so used / use them anymore... the same goes for buddy breathing.

Perhaps you should also teach younger folks on how to use them :wink:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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